It is hard to believe over a month has passed since I last wrote here. Nobody appears to be paying us, and yet we are so busy working around the farm. Not to mention the time it takes to look after a little one. Oliver seems to be figuring out some new thing every day, and it is getting harder and harder to keep up with him!
So much has happened in the past month. We finished planting the rest of the garlic, for one thing. Then the greenhouse parts finally arrived a few weeks ago, and within a few days we had the frame up, with the help of Zane and a friend, Jake. We've continued to tighten things up, attach the various pieces to the frame that will hold the plastic, and build the endwalls. We hope to gather some folks together on Monday morning for a couple hours to get the plastic on (we've been told "the more people the better!").
We built an A-frame shelter for the pigs, out of wood from an old deer blind that we found on the property, and we plan to build a shelter for the cows soon, as well.
We've also acquired 3 pigs and 2 cows in the last couple of weeks. We got both types of animals from two different farmers locally, who sell at the weekly farmer's market. The pigs were about 10 weeks old when we got them, two boys and a girl, and are a heritage breed called Berkshire. The cows are a mama and bull calf, and the mama is pregnant with next year's calf. We plan to keep the mama cow to breed, as well as the gilt (female pig), but the other's will be food at some point, so we won't be naming them. We think we'll name the cow, but haven't come up with one yet.
I've had some interesting emotions associated with getting these animals. I was immediately intimidated by how big the cow is (Orrin thinks she's about 1000 lbs), but in the week that we have had her I have seen how docile she is, and am not as scared of her as I was at first. Also, the only thing keeping her in her fenced area is a thin line of electric wiring. Fortunately, she's respecting the wire and has stayed put (the calf has gone under the wiring and gotten out a couple of times, but goes back to his mama at the end of the day, so we're not worried about him being out as long as she's inside). The cow has also cried a fair bit this week, we think because she misses having other cows around, and she cried a lot when the calf got out of the fence and she couldn't go with him. I felt bad for making her sad! It hadn't occurred to me that she would have emotions too, and be lonely. With the pigs, I have found them to be very cute, so I'm hoping they lose their luster as they get bigger, since we are going to be eating them. I think the idea of eating these animals is a bit of a challenge for me, but I like meat, so I will need to come to terms with it.
It is really starting to feel like a farm, now that we can look out the window of the house and see the animals up on the hill.
We are also starting to think about getting to work on completing the other house. Orrin has been finding some great deals on windows, doors, sinks, a wood stove, etc. through Kijiji, so we are gathering the pieces we will need. Once the greenhouse and cow shelter are complete, we will be more focused on getting windows set and siding on, to start.
We want to name the farm at some point, but inspiration hasn't come yet. We may not feel ready to name it until next year, after we've been here for a while.
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